Crisis in hosiery industry

There are about 1,200 hosiery manufacturing units in the country, mainly located in industrial zones of Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, as 150 of them had come to closure while the rest are at the high risk of closure. The skyrocketing prices of cotton yarn have brought the productions in some 150 industrial units of the hosiery sector to a complete standstill, causing million of rupees losses everyday, hosiery manufacturers said.

Another reason is the lower production of cotton as compared to the target set at about 14 million bales for this year,which was later scaled down after Government's revision to 12.8 million bales. The low domestic cotton production has increased the prices and demand of cotton yarn. The Government is advised by hosiery manufacturers to recover huge stocks of cotton yarn from hoarders on priority basis to salvage the hosiery sector and should also allow the medium and short staple cotton yarn from India and Central Asian countries to meet the local industrial demand.

Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (Punjab) Chairman Adil Butt said immediately after the imposition of emergency the foreign buyers, particularly those from the US, started sending queries about the ability of Pakistani knitwear exporters to execute orders on time.

The regional competitors reported a manifold increase in export orders as compared to the textile exports of Pakistan. In the total apparel exports to US, China's shares was 20.5%, India's 5.6%, Bangladesh's 4.1%, Sri Lanka's 2.5% and Pakistan's only 1.9% during 2006.

Moreover, Pakistan's knitted clothing export to EU was at the lowest rate per kilo as compared to its regional competitors and China. China's knitted clothing was at 11.92 euros per kilo, India at 14.08 euros per kilo, Bangladesh at 8.17 euros per kilo, and Pakistan at 7.46 euros per kilo.